--- ./lib/theme.py.orig	2013-09-01 12:06:59.000000000 +0000
+++ ./lib/theme.py	2014-07-15 21:47:13.000000000 +0000
@@ -6,12 +6,17 @@
 
 import os
 from string import Template
+import sys
 
 from gi.repository import Pango
 
 from constants import SHARED_DATA_FILE, THEME_HOME
 from utils.settings import SETTINGS_VIEW, SETTINGS_DESKTOP
 
+_encoding = sys.getfilesystemencoding()
+if _encoding is not None:
+    _encoding = _encoding.lower()
+
 
 class Theme(object):
 
@@ -87,7 +92,10 @@
             with open(template_file, 'r') as fh:
                 file = fh.read()
 
-            self.template[style] = Template(unicode(file, 'utf-8', 'ignore'))
+            if _encoding is None or _encoding == 'utf-8':
+                self.template[style] = Template(unicode(file, 'utf-8', 'ignore'))
+            else:
+                self.template[style] = Template(file)
 
 class FontSet(object):
 
